The company under Malchus had rendered good service during the campaign of Catalonia.  It had accompanied the column marching by the seashore; with this were the elephants, the treasure, and the heavy baggage of the army.  It had throughout been in advance of the column, feeling the way, protecting it from ambushes, and dispersing any small bodies of tribesmen who might have placed themselves on heights, whence with arrows and slings they could harass the column on its march.  The company had lost comparatively few men in the campaign, for it had taken no part in the various sieges.  Its duties, however, were severe in the extreme.  The men were ever on the watch, scouting the country round, while the army was engaged in siege operations, sometimes ascending mountains whence they could command views over the interior or pursuing bands of tribesmen to their refuges among the hills.

Severely as Malchus had trained himself in every exercise, he found it at first difficult to support the fatigues of such a life; but every day his muscles hardened, and by the end of the campaign he was able to keep on foot as long as the hardest of his men.

One day he had followed a party of the tribesmen far up among the mountains.  The enemy had scattered, and the Arabs in their hot pursuit had also broken up into small parties.  Malchus kept his eye upon the man who appeared to be the chief of the enemy’s party, and pressing hotly upon him brought him to bay on the face of a steep and rugged gorge.  Only one of the Numidians was at hand, a man named Nessus, who was greatly attached to his young leader, and always kept close to him in his expeditions.  The savage, a bulky and heavy man, finding he could no longer keep ahead of his fleet footed pursuers, took his post at a narrow point in the path where but one could oppose him; and there, with his heavy sword drawn, he awaited the attack.  Malchus advanced to meet him, sword in hand, when an arrow from Nessus whizzed past him and struck the chief in the throat, and his body fell heavily down the rocks.

“That is not fair,” Malchus said angrily.  “I would fain have fought him hand to hand.”

The Arab bowed his head.

“My lord,” he said, “the combat would not have been even; the man had the upper ground, and you would have fought at a grievous disadvantage.  Why should you risk your life in a fight with the swords, when my arrow has answered all purposes?  What should I have said if I had gone back without you?  What satisfaction would it have been to me to avenge your fall?  What would they have said to me when I told them that I looked on idly while you engaged in such a struggle?  Valour is valour, and we all know that my lord is the bravest among us; but the life of the cousin of our general is too valuable to be risked for nought when we are embarked upon a great enterprise.”

“Look, Nessus! what is there?” Malchus exclaimed, his attention attracted by a dark object which was crossing the narrow path some distance ahead and ascending the steep side of the gorge.  “It is a bear, let us follow him; his flesh will form a welcome change for the company tonight.”